Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Filip Sablik: “There is No House Style” or “I’m still giving away free trades”

I’ve been a fan of art for most my life and a fan of comic art for a good part of that. I’ve taken art and art history courses and earned a degree in Illustration. I’m a big fan of fine artists, such as Degas, Sergeant, Mucha, Klimt, Van Gogh and many more. I’ve chased down comics solely because they contained art by Pérez, Mignola, Miller, Tomine, Lee, Burns, and many more. I’m not telling you all of this to brag or put myself in any kind of position of authority when it comes to art. I’m laying this down to be up front and give you an idea of where I’m coming from and what my tastes are, which are fairly varied.

My first thought is that past a certain technical level, there is no “good art” or “bad art.” What I mean by that is this – there are a number of fundamental technical skills one can learn when training as an artist – things like human anatomy, perspective, composition, color theory, and so on. Like other technical skills, they can be taught like programming a computer, playing a sport, or repairing a combustible engine. The learning and application of these skills will come easier for some people than it will for others, but I believe anyone can learn over time how to draw a proportional and accurate human figure. Artists, in my mind, are people who not only can learn and acquire these technical skills easier than the average person, but also have some innate talent to interpret these skills toward their own unique vision. That’s the difference between someone who can play a composition by Mozart on the piano and well, Mozart.

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If you want to see one artist’s progression (Mike Choi) early in his career, you can get 2 free trade paperbacks from instocktrades.com right now. All you have to do is make one additional purchase from Instock Trades, which doesn’t even have to be a Top Cow book, and Witchblade Volume 10 and Witchblade Volume 11 are absolutely free. If you spend $50 or more, your shipping will be free. Check them out, they’re free so what do you have to lose?